Lost River Sucker and Shortnose Sucker

Information Extracted From The 1995 Sucker Critical Habitat Proposal

The Upper Klamath River Basin (Basin) above Iron Gate Dam on the Klamath River encompasses a drainage area of approximately 2,120,400 hectares (5,301,000 acres) in Oregon and California (USFWS 1992). Early records from the Basin indicate that the Lost  River and shortnose suckers were common and abundant. Cope (1884) noted that Upper Klamath Lake sustained "a great population of fishes", while Gilbert (1898) noted that the Lost River sucker was "the most important food-fish of the Klamath Lake region." Spring sucker runs "in incredible numbers" (Gilbert 1898) were relied upon as a food source by the Klamath and Modoc Indians and were taken by local settlers for human consumption and livestock feed (Cope 1879, Coots 1965, Howe 1968). Several commercial operations processed "enormous amounts" of suckers into oil, dried fish, canned fish, and other products (Andreasen 1975, Howe 1968).

The Upper Klamath Basin once had over 350,000 acres of wetlands (USFWS 1989), extensive riparian corridors, and functional floodplains that could intercept storm runoff, dampen sharp peaks in the hydrograph, reduce erosion forces, remove organic and inorganic nutrients, and improve water quality (Mitsch and Gosselink 1986). The loss of these wetlands has had large scale detrimental effects to the quality and quantity of suitable sucker habitat (USFWS 1993). Currently, less than 75,000 acres of wetlands remain in the Basin (USFWS 1992).  

The Lost River sucker is native to Upper Klamath Lake (Williams et al. 1985) and its tributaries including the Williamson River, the Sprague River, the Wood River, Crooked Creek, Seven Mile Creek, Four Mile Creek and slough, Odessa Creek, Crystal Creek (Stine 1982). The Lost River sucker also historically inhabited the Lost River watershed, Tule Lake, Lower Klamath Lake, and Sheepy Lake (Moyle 1976), but is not considered native to the Klamath River. The present distribution of the Lost River sucker includes Upper Klamath Lake and its tributaries (Buettner and Scoppettone 1990), Clear Lake Reservoir and its tributaries (Buettner, pers. comm. cited in USFWS 1993), Tule Lake and the Lost River up to Anderson-Rose Dam (Scoppettone, pers. comm. cited in USFWS 1993), the Klamath River downstream to Copco Reservoir (Beak 1987) and probably to Iron Gate Reservoir (Maria, pers. comm. cited in USFWS 1993). In the Upper Klamath Lake watershed, Lost River sucker spawning runs are primarily limited to Sucker Springs in Upper Klamath Lake , and the Sprague and Williamson Rivers . Spawning runs also occur in the Wood River and in Crooked Creek (Markle and Simon 1993) in this watershed. An additional run may occur in Sheepy Lake in the Lower Klamath Lake watershed (Johnson, pers. comm. cited in USFWS 1993), and spawning has been documented in the Clear Lake watershed (Buettner and Scoppettone 1990).  

Shortnose sucker historically occurred in Upper Klamath Lake and its tributaries (Miller and Smith 1981; Williams et al. 1985), although Moyle (1976) includes Lake of the Woods, Oregon, and probably the Lost River system (Scoppettone and Vinyard 1991). The current distribution of the shortnose sucker includes Upper Klamath Lake and its tributaries, Klamath River downstream to Iron Gate Reservoir, Clear Lake Reservoir and its tributaries, Gerber Reservoir and its tributaries, the Lost River, and Tule Lake. Gerber Reservoir represents the only habitat with a shortnose sucker population that does not also have a Lost River sucker population. In the Upper Klamath Lake watershed, shortnose sucker spawning runs are primarily limited to the Sprague and Williamson Rivers, although Spawning runs may also occur in the Wood River and in Crooked Creek (Markle and Simon 1993). Shortnose sucker spawning has been documented in the Clear Lake watershed (Buettner and Scoppettone 1990).

Both species are primarily lake residents that spawn in rivers, streams, or springs associated with lake habitats. After hatching, larval suckers migrate out of spawning substrates, which are usually gravels or cobbles, and drift downstream into lake habitats. Shoreline river and lake habitats with vegetative structure are known to be important during larval and juvenile rearing (Klamath Tribe 1991, Markle and Simon 1993). The Lost River and shortnose suckers are omnivorous bottom feeders whose diets include detritus, zooplankton, algae and aquatic insects (Buettner and Scoppettone 1990). Sexual maturity for Lost River suckers sampled in Upper Klamath Lake occurs between the ages of 6 to 14 years with most maturing at age 9 (Buettner and Scoppettone 1990). Most shortnose suckers reach sexual maturity at age 6 or 7 (Buettner and Scoppettone 1990).  

The historical range of the Lost River and shortnose suckers has been fragmented by construction of dams, instream diversion structures, irrigation canals, and the general development of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Klamath Project and related agricultural processes. Because habitat fragmentation limits or prevents genetic interchange among populations, extinction could result as genetic diversity decreases and populations become more susceptible to environmental change. The combined effects of damming of rivers, instream flow diversions, draining of marshes, dredging of Upper Klamath lake, and other water manipulations has threatened both species with extinction (53 FR 27130). Additionally, water quality degradation in the Upper Klamath Lake watershed has led to large-scale fish kills related to algal bloom cycles in the lake (Kann and Smith 1993). Introduced exotic fishes may reduce recruitment through competition with, or predation upon, suckers and sucker larvae (USFWS 1993, Dunsmoor 1993). Conservation of the Lost River and shortnose suckers will require the identification of actions to reduce threats of water quality-induced fish kills, provide the wide range of habitats needed by all size and age classes of the fishes, reduce the impacts of exotic fishes, improve migration corridors between habitats and populations, and establish refugial populations (USFWS 1993).  

The primary authors of this information are Rollie White of the Service's Portland Field Office and Kevin Stubbs of the Service's Sacramento Field Office.

A complete list of all references cited in the original critical habitat proposal is available upon request from the Field Supervisor, Portland Field Office, 2600 SE 98th Ave., Suite 100, Portland, OR 97266, tel 503-231-6179, fax 503-231-6195.    

From:  http://refuges.fws.gov/fish/KlamathBasinSuckers.html

 Shortnose Sucker (endangered)

Even though shortnose suckers (Chasmistes brevirostris) can live as long as 33 years, attain a length of 20 inches, and were once so abundant that canneries were built to package them for human consumption, the species now is federally listed as endangered. The remaining shortnose suckers live in quiet lake waters most of the year and migrate up fast-moving streams in the spring to spawn. Once, 350,000 acres of wetlands and floodplains protected the quality and timing of water entering their ecosystem. Alterations of natural streamflows by humans have reduced the reproductive success of shortnose suckers by as much as 95 percent. Even though a shortnose sucker can disperse as many as 46,000 eggs while spawning, no significant recruitment of young into the population had occurred in the 18 years before the species was listed.

Lost River Sucker (endangered)

Lost River suckers (Deltistes luxatus) can live to be 45 years old, and once were an abundant source of oil and dried fish for human use. Since 1988, however, the species has been federally listed as endangered. Like the shortnose sucker, this is a lake-dwelling fish that migrates into streams to spawn. Both species have suffered from a similar combination of overharvesting, pollution, and habitat loss which reduced their numbers, their reproductive success, and the area in which they can survive. Changes to sucker habitat include filled marshes, dammed streams, and diverted water supplies. Soils disturbed by human activities such as logging, farming, construction, or cattle grazing are swept into streams and lakes by rainfall. Vegetation removal from streamsides eliminates protection from the sun's heat and from predators. Also, chemicals from forestry and farming flow into waters occupied by this species.

From:  http://endangered.fws.gov/klamath.html